The continuous wailing of ambulance sirens, send a chill down
one’s spine, another loved one from somebody’s family, suffering from the
impact of second edition of covid-19, is on the lookout for a hospital bed and
the much-needed evasive supply of oxygen as life support. It is ironic that in
today’s time of technological advancement many unsuspecting innocent human
beings are losing a desperately fought battle for survival against a more
vicious and fast spreading variants of corona virus. Medical infrastructures
are crumbling under the huge volume of patients reporting infections. Vaccination
program is struggling to meet targets that keep becoming difficult by the day,
the government has opened registration of people for vaccination, but it is a
gigantic task which presently at the very outset, means reaching out to over
50% of the total population of almost 1.4 billion people which would be about
70 million people spread across a large geographical terrain in 29 states and 7
Union territories. Recently a newspaper reported the registrations for
vaccinations coming at the rate of 55000 per second! A bigger danger is that
much of rural India which accounts for almost 65% of the total population
(90million) was largely unaffected and now the virus seems to be creeping there
as well. The problem is not only India, as in today’s time given the travel
mobility of people from all walks of life and with their relatives spread
around the globe with different natural and adopted nationalities, the present
dangerous second phase of the pandemic is a global problem and unless checked,
it may reach very scary levels impacting the world at large. The second wave is
so vicious that it has impacted every other home. It is heart-warming to see
that governments around the world understand the problem and are coming forward
to cooperate with each other in combatting this menace. On the domestic front
we see religious bodies, NGOs, industry and many others doing their bit to
defuse the pain and anguish due to the impact of the pandemic. The Indian label
industry is also taking steps to contribute towards the safety and wellbeing of
their workforce and wherever possible contributing to the society as well.
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| Kuldip Goel |
The author reached out to many leading label manufacturers to
assess the level of infections in the two phases of covid and their reactions
to combat the menace. The author, his most
family members including both sons K D Sahni and Pawandeep Sahni, MD of Omet India Pvt. Ltd. and 4 employees in his company Weldon Celloplast Ltd. tested positive. Kuldip Goel president LMAI
(Label Manufacturers Association of India) and Chairman/MD of Any Graphics
NOIDA reported 25 of his team including
14 of top management along with his son Naveen went through the ordeal. He restricts
himself from saying he helped his people during the hard time but prefers to
use the word support instead. Besides ensuring the job security of his people,
providing financial and medical support they even arranged counselling to
almost 100+ people in bringing them out from depression. Kuldip along with his
colleagues in board of directors of LMAI are already planning to import Oxygen
concentrators for the needy. Abhay Datta Director UV Graphic Technologies where
4 people were infected including himself and his son, has prepared guidelines
and implemented them for awareness and safe working within the business. He
has developed UVC disinfection devices for articles to contain spread of
corona. He is unhappy on how the government has dealt with the outbreak, he
says, “It is a bad situation, really sad that the government has failed to
control it.” Twelve persons including himself and his plant head in Anuj
Bharagava lead Kumar Labels suffered infection, but Anuj went ahead and made a
makeshift clinic with Oxygen & IV facility at his NOIDA factory. As also
helping communities by enabling concentrators and oxygen cylinders. He too is
concerned about the handling of the spread, “It is a terrible period for India,
and humanity. We wish things were better anticipated and planned by the
authorities. However still, we are all doing our best to help each other. Sad
to see some people trying to profiteer by selling drugs and services in black” he
says.
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| Nirav Shah |
In central and west India there is a bigger concentration of
label companies and there too most are impacted though some have succeeded in
limiting the impact of the pandemic. LMAI
honorary secretary and Director of Indore headquartered Pragati Graphics and
Packaging has been deeply involved in arranging hospital beds, medicines,
oxygen, oxygen cylinders, etc. for a lot of people from and around Indore.
He has also arranged two oxygen concentrators which are being given to needy
people. Commenting on the 25 people infected in his company he said, “To me the
picture looks gloomy. The industry was slowly picking up as the demand was
growing. This wave of pandemic has again brought the industry to its knees and
the situation will become very bad if the wave of Covid does not recede soon.” Nirav
Shah heading Letragraphix in Ahmedabad had to re-engineer his production plans
to meet timelines and service his customers efficiently since 20-25% of his
workforce got infected. He has stood by his employees in full even during
lockdown and providing whatever support was needed. On the social front Nirav
finds satisfaction from the fact that they have donated sanitisers, ration kits
and food packets besides supporting an NGO called Karma Foundation on regular
basis. He states that these are unpredictable times which have taught many
lessons to everyone to get adjusted to a new normal of work culture and pray
for the world to heal soon.
 |
| Vinod Vazhapulli of Skanem |
Mumbai based Skanem India Pvt. Ltd. (Formerly Skanem
Interlabels) a subsidiary of Skanem AS headquartered in Norway with presence in
8 countries also reported 15% to 20% of workforce as infected in its 4 sites
within India. Vinod Vazhapulli Managing Director informed that the company has taken
care of their employees by paying before time in full without any deductions
whatsoever ever since the start of pandemic and supporting wherever help was
needed. The company had them covered under the Insurance scheme with a coverage
of Sum insured of Rs. 2 Lakhs especially for Covid by Skanem India, thereby
ensuring that all their Medical and treatment expenses are taken care of under
Cash less transaction schemes. Online counselling sessions / Yoga classes etc. were
organized ensuring that any kind of anxiety or mental dis-order that would have
developed due to the pandemic or extended lock downs are handled by experts,
taking care of the mental wellbeing of their employees. As a social endeavor
They have provided Medical aid , Food & PPEs to the Maljipada village where
the Mumbai plant is, during the peak of Lock downs last year. Vinod says, “
there has been an impact of this outbreak on our Industry, the recovery had
commenced but with this 2nd wave it is again pushed back to uncertain times”.
 |
| Raveendran |
South India based Rajeev Nair CMD of Stallion Group informed
that 25 % of their team including 5% from management were impacted, he is
worried that the business that went down in the first phase of covid had
started to recover is now again adversely impacted in the second phase.
Raveendran of Seljegat in Sivakasi is thankful that they have been cautious with
their workforce, so the infections were minimal, just two employees and his
younger brother were impacted mildly and recovered. They have in place a strict
protocol of checking temperature, oxygen levels and providing sanitisers. They
also provide herbal immunity boosting tea to all workforce who must maintain safe
distance and are divided into two shifts. Except for a week of lock down, they
have been working right through and in fact are in 100% production. They
provide separate buses for women and other workers making several trips to
maintain distance and transport them to and fro safely. They have even invited government
officials to study their systems that have helped in curtailing the infection.
We see similar situation in J K Fine Prints Mumbai, Director Himanshu Kapur who
is son of Surender Kapur the founder president of LMAI says, “We had just one
infection between the two phases, we have given full financial support to our
workers as also provided them and their families with masks, sanitisers and
other needs” he further adds, “After the initial jolt, I now feel that
label industry will not be so drastically impacted. We will see growth coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities who
will patronise organised retail for their needs”.
 |
| Sandeep Zaveri of Total Print |
The best response came from LMAI past president Sandeep Zaveri
heading Total Print Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai, he says, “Between the two
phases none in our company got infected due to strict norms maintained by us
and supporting our team with full salaries and food needs” he adds, “I think God
has created this for us all human beings to go slow, spend quality time with our
near and dear ones”.
Many NGOs(Non-Government Organisations), religious bodies,
companies and individuals are contributing in whichever way they can reduce the
sufferings of people. Donations and help from these groups keep pouring in and
exhibits the caring that emanates from these groups. However, in contrast we
have reached a situation when politicians continue to play the blame game
accusing each other for the sufferings of population, with their eyes on the
next election and access to country’s coffers they are insensitive to the pain
people are going through. Allowing election rallies and religious gatherings of
hundreds of thousand people not following covid norms has contributed to the
massive spread. The central government says state government is wrong and vice-versa
while the innocent citizens gasp for that breadth which will come loaded with
some oxygen so that they may still survive to be with their loved ones another
day. It is so unfortunate that we talk of financial outlay of billions in our
budgets yet a commodity like oxygen that is an imperative for survival has
become a political point for our leaders blaming it on logistics. The pain and
suffering do not end for the relatives of those who have lost their fight
against covid and passed away, there is neither the means to take the bodies to
cremation grounds nor the space to cremate them. Will residents of another
developed country understand this kind of situation? All this while the needy yearn for that
breadth which will decide if they exist the next day or not. Added to this the
unscrupulous citizens who look at this as an opportunity to make more money,
they make the Shylock in Shakespeare’s story "Merchent of Venice" appear as a reasonable person, he
may have just asked for a pound of flesh from just one borrower, here these black
marketeers are trading in oxygen, essential medicines and life support
equipment to draw unreasonable profit from the lives of a suffering generation.
History will not and should not pardon such unethical persons who have no
feelings that a grandparent, a parent, a spouse, a sibling or an offspring are so precious part that one yearns for them to be
there always and losing them is not imaginable. Courts in India appear to be
understanding the gravity of the situation but who will teach the politicians
who are the executive running the country. It is not just watching on TV that
people are suffering and dying, but it is now being felt and being experienced by
all households largely. A friend, a relative, a business associate, a colleague
or a loved one just vanishes losing out to the pandemic leaving a void and a
hollow feeling whereby the tears have no place to go.
Written by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited
New Delhi May 2021
Reproduction permitted by giving credit to author and link to blog http://harveersahni.blogspot.com
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